The present invention relates to a beverage package and a method of forming such a package. More particularly it concerns a sealed package of the kind containing beverage having gas in solution and within which beverage is located a hollow insert containing gas under pressure which, upon opening of the package, causes a gas and/or liquid to be ejected from the insert by way of a restricted orifice to cause, or assist in, the formation of a head of froth on the beverage by the evolution of gas dissolved therein. The ejection of the gas and/or liquid from the hollow insert results from the opening of the package when a headspace of the beverage which, in the sealed package, is at a pressure greater than atmospheric rapidly reduces to atmospheric pressure so that a pressure differential is created which permits the gas and/or liquid under pressure greater than atmospheric in the insert to be ejected into the beverage in the container. An example of a beverage package of the kind discussed above is discussed in our Patent Specification G.B.-A-2,183,592.
Beverage packages made in accordance with the preferred embodiment of our aforementioned British Patent Specification have met with considerable commercial success where the hollow insert is located at or towards the bottom of a container and retained as a press or interference fit with the side wall of the container. This is to ensure that when the package is opened in the generally upright condition, the insert (or at least the restricted orifice thereof) is submerged within the beverage to be effective when the gas and/or liquid is ejected for forming the head on the beverage. Competitors have attempted to emulate the success of the beverage package disclosed in our aforementioned British Patent Specification where the hollow insert is frictionally retained at the bottom of the container. However, disadvantages have been found by such retention where an open top of the container through which the insert is passed is narrow compared with the part of the container adjacent its base at which the insert frictionally engages with the side wall. Consequently expensive insert handling equipment has been developed by which the insert can be passed through the narrow opening of the container in a canted position and subsequently reoriented within the container so that it can be friction fitted within the relatively broader side wall towards the bottom of the container--an example of such equipment is disclosed in G.B.-A-2,218,080. It is an object of the present invention to provide a beverage package of the kind discussed above and by which it may be ensured that the insert can be located through a relatively narrow open top of the container and secured for its restricted aperture to be submerged in the beverage when the container is in an upstanding condition in a manner which is relatively simple, efficient, and alleviates the necessity to change the orientation of the insert following its introduction into the container.